


Finding Peace In Another

by 13_Reasons_Ideas



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fist Fights, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Sibling Death, Smut, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2020-11-23 14:28:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20893595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13_Reasons_Ideas/pseuds/13_Reasons_Ideas
Summary: When tragedy strikes, Rebecca's father decides it is time for a change. A move to Crestmont is in order. Rebecca meets the students of Liberty High and begins to pick up the pieces. Her newfound friendships morph into more and tensions rise when events are revealed.I suck at summaries. Please read.





	1. Chapter 1

The first day of school in a new place. It’s always hard. It’s even harder when you’re literally in a different country and have no one who gets what you’re going through. I understand why Dad took this job, but I don’t get why we had to move here instead of him working from home and take trips. Not move to some random little town called Crestmont, California. I get that Dad wanted me to have a good education and stay out of trouble in the city, but it still doesn’t make sense when he has to commute anyway. If he’s even here. We have lived here for a week and a half and he literally stayed in town long enough to get the utilities hooked up. Then he was off on another business trip, leaving me to get to know a new town by myself. It’s not like I’m not used to him not being around, he was gone on business trips a lot when mom and Jake were alive. After Mom died, he started working later and going on trips more and more. And then Jake... no. Can’t think about Jake. Not today. It’s the first day. It’s going to be a good day. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I got up and got ready for school. My favourite black skinny jeans and cream tank top with a yellow cardigan had been laid out before bed. The yellow in the cardigan pulling out the highlights in my ash brown hair and making my skin look slightly less pale and ghostly. After putting on a little bit of makeup, I changed and had breakfast-if coffee counts as breakfast, before grabbing my lunch and bag for school. I had driven past Liberty High everyday this week, so I knew exactly where I was going. The parking lot was half full, so I parked fairly quickly and made my way inside to talk to the guidance councillor about my transfer and to get my schedule. I went to the office and asked the receptionist for Mr. Porter. A tall black man came out of his office and greeted me.   
“You must be Rebecca, welcome to Liberty High.” He put his hand on my back professionally and guided me into his office. Once inside we made small talk for a couple of minutes to break the tension and he handed me a map and my schedule. “Now, your credit for Social 30 did not transfer so you will need to take History 12 to replace it. Additionally, it is now a requirement that you take Peer Communications at our school. So that is on your schedule as well. I read your file and given the... situation with your brother, we can exempt you from certain discussions for a period of time, however if you do not want to be exempted, that is fine as well. I will discuss it with Ms. Bradley, and you can decide what to do.” Mr. Porter explained to me carefully. Great. My brother is a situation here. Oh well. I didn’t expect much else I thought to myself. “Do you have any questions?” Mr. Porter asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.   
“No. That should be fine. Thanks Mr. Porter.” I replied kindly. As I left I heard him call me.   
“And Rebecca? If you ever want to talk, my door is always open. About anything.” He said in a caring tone. I nodded in response so he knew I heard him.   
I made my way through the halls and towards my locker slowly since I had time before class, simply taking it all in. Finding my locker and opening it, a boy wearing a blue and white letterman jacket, I recognized from up my street stopped and opened what I assume was his locker. As he was gathering his things, he looked over and noticed me.  
“Hey, I haven’t seen you around before are you new here?” He asked nicely.   
“I just moved here. Actually, I think I live like 4 doors down from you?” I replied nodding and pointing to try and place him.   
“The house with the red door that sold?” He asked, I nodded slowly. “Oh no way, nice. It’s a good house.”   
I laughed a little and smiled “yeah. Seems like a pretty sturdy one. My dad wouldn’t have bought it otherwise. Comes with being an architect I guess.”   
He chuckled at that. “Sorry, where are my manners, my name’s Bryce. Bryce Walker.” He stuck his hand out for me to shake. I quickly put my things in my locker and shook his hand.   
“Rebecca Samuels.”   
“How do you like it here so far Rebecca?”   
“It’s very... different here. I wasn’t really expecting it to be *this* different.”   
“Oh really, what state are you from?” Bryce asked, obviously turning up the charm.   
“Country. I’m from Canada. Alberta actually.”  
“Cool. What’s that like?”  
“Think of it as... a more,” I pause trying to decide the best way to describe it. “Liberal Texas, I guess? Less blatant homophobia, ready access to abortion and women’s healthcare, probably as many cows. Definitely the same amount of cowboy hats and boots.”  
“Okay. I can kind of picture it, yeah. What’s your schedule like? Maybe I can help you out a little.”   
“Hey Bryce! How’d you do on that bullshit history-oh hello.” A taller boy exclaimed from up the hall. He was followed by a group of guys, all wearing white and blue letterman jackets. Except him. He was wearing what appeared to be a very soft red and grey flannel shirt. “Sorry, I didn’t realize there was a lady here. Name’s Montgomery.” He said, holding his hand out to me.   
“Rebecca.” I replied, gently taking his hand and shaking it.   
“She just moved here. She’s from Canada.” Bryce explained as if he knew more on the topic than he did.   
“Oh nice. So where did you put your polar bear while you were in class?” Montgomery asked. I chuckled a bit, realizing he was kidding. I decided to fuck with him a bit.  
“Well away from the horses obviously. Don’t need another incident like the one in ‘92.” I replied straight faced. The look on his face was priceless. It was a mix between confusion and absolute disgust. Some of the other guys around him were trying to hold back their laughter. At least some people know a joke when they hear it. “I’m kidding. Polar bears are fucking vicious dude.”   
“Oh... oh okay good.” He replied, obviously relieved but not offended by the joke.   
As introductions were made, my phone began ringing. I pulled it out smiling, knowing exactly who was calling without looking. Putting a hand up and quietly apologizing for the interruption, I answered it. “Hey Bailey. Yes I’m settling in okay. Same as I was yesterday when you called...Yes, I made it to school okay... Bailey. I’ll be fine I swear. Go to class.” I paused, an unsurprised look on my face, drawing weird looks from the men around me “yes, I’m doing the look... Go. To. Class.... Learn things. Okay, I gotta go. I love you. I’ll text you tonight.” Shaking my head and ending the call, I grabbed my schedule from my locker, turning to Bryce, to answer his previous question. “Okay let’s see. History in room 167. English in room 293. Then lunch. Ugh. Math in room 137 and Peer Communication in room 150. Is that as awful as it sounds?” The guys laughed as though it was, really, that awful.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day continues as introductions are made and Rebecca makes good on a promise she made.

The really tall boy who had introduced himself as Zach piped up and said he also had history and Peer Communications and he would take me. I nodded and felt a few pairs of eyes on me as we walked away. Turning back, I caught Bryce staring at my ass. I didn’t pay much mind to it since he’s just a hormonal teenage boy. Not like he would do anything to hurt me. I also noticed Montgomery and Scott looking at me, though they were decent enough to keep the staring to G rated areas and to a minimum. Zach and I were able to strike up a conversation on the way to class.   
“So what were your classes like back home Rebecca?” He asked smiling.   
“Becca please. And classes were good. I technically already did Social Studies 30 but my credit didn’t transfer. So I have to take History.”   
“Man, that blows. At least Coach Rick makes it interesting so you might not be too bored in class.”   
“Meh, it’s alright. What is this Peer Communications thing we all have to take?” I asked him.   
“Oh that. That’s just a class where we learn about people. Like each other, in a safe area to share feelings. It used to be optional, but there was an incident last year, so now it’s a mandatory class for all students.” He explained, getting quiet near the end.   
I nodded. I had heard about Hannah Baker. I googled the town when Dad told me we were moving. And I knew all too well what an “incident” like that would cause and how it was likely to be dealt with. “Okay, so it’s kind of like Career and Life Management without the career part?”  
“Uh.. I guess? Yeah, sort of.” He replied slightly confused. We had arrived at the class and I sat next to Zach.   
“It’s a class we had to take to graduate back home. We talked about things like feelings and safe sex and consent. But also like how to pay bills and get a job. Easiest A ever. You showed up and passed.” I explained to Zach. He nodded in understanding. As we got settled, a man who was obviously Coach Rick judging by his age and the fact that he was wearing a navy-blue track suit, came in and began class. Thankfully my dad had called the school and requested to skip out on the whole introductions thing for most classes. I unfortunately couldn’t get out of it for Peer Communications, but that comes with the nature of the class. After a VERY long hour and a half, class was finally over. Zach kindly offered to walk me to English because he also had a class near there.   
English was almost, if not more boring than History. When I walked in to class, I realized we were reading To Kill A Mockingbird. The same book I had read in the tenth grade. Sighing, I took a seat next to a Hispanic guy with nice hair and a leather jacket. He looked up at me and smiled politely. “Hey. You’re new, right?” He asked.   
“Yup. New girl, that’s me.” I chuckled back. He laughed at that and waved his book at me.   
“You ready for the wonders of racism and children in a courtroom New Girl? Or were you going to tell me your name?”   
“Rebecca. But please, call me Becca. So ready, Leather Jacket.”   
He laughed out loud at that, drawing looks from other classmates. “Tony.” Before he could say more, the teacher, Mrs. Matthews began teaching. I avoided asking or answering any questions because I didn’t feel like getting praised for my knowledge on a book I had studied two years ago. When the hour and a half was up and the bell rang, I gathered my things and noticed Tony waiting at his desk for me. “You seemed very disinterested in that book. Not a reader?” He said to me as we walked out of the classroom.   
“Oh no! I’m a huge reader. It’s just that I already studied this book in grade 10, so it wasn’t anything new for me.”  
“Really… pretty and a reader, girl after my own heart.” He chuckled as if I was missing something. I looked at him as I tried to let him down easy. I’m not looking for a boyfriend didn’t really seem like the best choice, because it’s not like I’m not open to a relationship, just maybe not with someone I had said less than 50 words to. He laughed and put his hand on my shoulder, “my ex-boyfriend is the editor of a school magazine. Got used to having readers around.” I sighed in relief and apologized for the demise of his relationship. “Nah, don’t worry about it.” He said smirking. “So Becca, what’s your favourite book?”   
My eyes lit up and I gushed all about my favourite book, Delirium, the rest of the way to the cafeteria. He smiled and nodded, asking questions so I knew I wasn’t boring him as we walked.   
Walking into the cafeteria with Tony, I heard my name being called. I turned to the sound and smiled, waving at Bryce who started pointing to their table, calling me over. I nodded and said bye to Tony before making my way to their table.  
“Hey.” I said sitting down at lunch and pulling out my sandwich and apple.   
They waved and we made small talk until Montgomery and some blonde girl came over. She sat in Bryce’s lap and kissed him before one of the guys- Troy maybe- told them to get a damn room. Bryce flipped him off and the girl noticed me sitting there.   
“Oh hi! I didn’t see you there! I’m Chloe, what’s your name?” She said happily.   
“Rebecca, but people call me Becca.” I replied smiling at her. We all made small talk and shared pleasantries. As various people broke off into various different topics, Scott turned his attention to me.   
“So, Becca. How are your classes so far?” He asked, his blue eyes shining under the fluorescent lighting of the cafeteria.   
“Honestly? Boring as shit.” I told him plainly.   
He smiled “oh? That good huh?”   
“I already studied the book we are reading in English a year ago and I already know most of the stuff we talked about in History. I’m just dreading Math.”   
Nodding, he chuckled “not good with numbers?”   
“Not really?” I said laughing. “So I’m sure you can imagine how my dad, architect extraordinaire, reacted when I told him math is stupid and makes no sense.”   
Scott laughed, his whole face lighting up. I noticed Montgomery looking at us but he looked away quickly. As Scott and I talked, he spent a great deal of lunch trying to explain baseball to me, never getting very far and using my half-eaten sandwich as bases, and my apple slices as players, I saw Montgomery keep sneaking glances our way. I wonder what his story is. Scott pulled me out of my thoughts asking “I don’t want to be rude but… what the hell is on this sandwich? It’s drier than cardboard in the sun.”   
I laughed at his choice of words, “turkey and cheddar cheese. Plain. No sauce. Multigrain bread.” I answered as if it was obvious, which it was. Very obvious.  
“Well alright then.” He chuckled and went back to trying hopelessly to explain the sport he so loved to me. I groaned as the bell rang gathering my things, dreading Math class. As I said my goodbyes and made my way out of the cafeteria, I heard someone hurrying to catch up to me. Turning around I saw that it was Montgomery.   
“Hey Rebecca! Wait up.” He called. I usually hate being called Rebecca, but for some reason coming from him, it wasn’t all that bad. The way it rolled off his tongue made it sound so natural. He caught up to me and offered “I’ll walk you to class.” Nodding, we fell into step together and walked in a comfortable quiet. I realized that this was the first time all day, someone wasn’t interested in asking me all sorts of questions about myself. It was oddly nice. Arriving at my classroom he gestured “this is your stop. See you later?”   
“For sure.” I replied. As he walked away, before I could think twice, I called after him “Hey Montgomery!” He turned to me questioningly. “I know this is forward, but I promised someone important a while ago I would take more risks. Would you like to come by later? I still have a lot of unpacking to do, and my dad won’t be home for at least another week. I could use another pair of hands, if you wanted or you didn’t have plans?” I asked, afraid to look at his face.  
“Sure Rebecca, I’ll meet you at your locker after school?” He said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.   
“Sure thing.” I smiled and waved to him as I walked into my most dreaded class.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rebecca makes some more friends. Monty and Rebecca get to know each other and she starts to catch feelings.

Math class wasn’t as bad as I thought. Though, I had already learned most of what the teacher, Mr. Daniel was teaching. It was nice for me, given how my previous math classes had gone, to finally be on the same page and have somewhat of a firm grasp on the concepts. I saw Scott in my class but he was surrounded by other students so I couldn’t sit near him, plus it could be good to branch out and meet other people. I ended up finding a seat with a few people that looked nice enough. They introduced themselves as Alex, Jessica, Justin, and Clay. There was another boy next to us with jet black hair who introduced himself to me as Cyrus. He seemed like good people. He reminded me of my friends back home. I introduced myself the same way I had all day, my name and then my preferred nickname.   
They all seemed pretty nice and like people I would want to spend time with. My left sleeve fell down as I asked a question during class, exposing both my old and fresh tattoos. Some lyrics that are important to me and a semicolon. Cyrus must have seen them because he threw a note at my desk that read, ‘nice tats. Good lyrics, wouldn’t have pegged you for a fan of them. Hang out sometime? And I’m sorry.’ I knew he was referring to the semicolon. I looked up and smiled at him, then wrote my phone number down on the paper and passed it back to him. After class, I said goodbye to the little group and saw Zach waiting for me to go to Peer Communications. We quickly got to talking and laughing as if we had known each other our whole lives, and exchanged numbers. I was dreading the whole ‘introduce yourself and tell us X about you’ thing in our next class. Zach assured me that it wouldn’t be that bad. Class was kind of interesting, and Zack was right. The introduction wasn’t as bad as I thought, Ms. Bradley simply said I was a transfer student and introduced me, and then I said to call me Becca. Quick and easy, just how I like awkward forced introductions to go. In class we discussed making people feel welcome, which I assume was selected because of my first day here. We went around in a circle and brainstormed ideas while she wrote them down. After class, Zach explained what the compliment bags were and I smiled at the idea. Maybe if we had those at my old school…. Zach and I walked out of class together and he kindly escorted me to my locker, where Bryce and Montgomery were chatting about something. I waved politely as I opened my locker. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and checked the text, it was from an unknown number. Opening the text, I saw it was from Cyrus. ‘Hey Becca, it’s Cyrus. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out and work on some math or listen to music or something this evening?’ I heard Zach invite Montgomery over for some video games, which he declined saying he had plans. Quickly responding to Cyrus ‘can’t today, have to unpack the rest of my stuff. Rain check?’ Locking my phone and looking up, I saw Chloe latched onto Bryce’s arm making plans for him to go to her place since her parents were out of town for a few days. Getting my stuff together, I walked to my car, waiting for Monty to meet me. When he came, he apologized for making me wait, he was talking with Bryce and Zach and couldn’t get away. I told him it was okay and that I lived 4 houses up from Bryce, so he could just follow me there and we could get to the dirty work of unpacking. Laughing, he agreed and we met back up at my place.  
Walking up to my door, I unlocked it. “Sorry about the mess, I’ve been trying to keep it clean in here but with the unpacking and organizing, it can be a little hard.” I explained, hoping he would understand. He nodded as we walked in and put our respective things down. “Did you want something to eat or anything? I went to the grocery store the other day and I’m fairly good in the kitchen.” I asked him, ever the good hostess.   
“Sure. I’ll take a water if you have. As far as food goes, I’m good with pretty much whatever you feel like.” He responded, looking around at all the boxes.   
“Sure. Here you go.” I tossed him the bottle and he caught it easily. Must be those sports developed reflexes. I noticed him looking around, “I don’t need to do all of it today, I just wanted to get some of my stuff done so my room feels a little more… mine, you know?” I explained, hoping he didn’t think I was just using him for manual labour.   
“No problem, I’m happy to help.” He replied sincerely smiling at me. Going through the fridge, I pulled out various ingredients and got things together for dinner.  
“How does chicken and rice sound?”   
“Great. Need any help?” He offered, coming towards the kitchen and sitting at the island.   
“Umm… I should be okay. I’m just going to run upstairs and change really quick before I get started.”   
“Okay. I’ll be here.” He said nodding and smirking. I ran upstairs and looked through my clothes for something to wear that wasn’t too risqué but I could also move comfortably in. I settled on a pair of grey yoga pants and left my cardigan on my bed. Running back down, I saw him reading one of the books I left downstairs last night. When he noticed me, he tried to play it off like he wasn’t reading it, merely looking and filling time. I laughed and got dinner on the go for us, feeling him watch my every move. Deciding to make myself some tea, I tried to reach the mugs. They were on the second shelf from the top, so it was a feat to try and get them down with my short stature. I heard Montgomery chuckle at my difficulties as he came and grabbed one down for me. “Here you go. Need any other high up things while I’m here little one?” He said as he handed it to me.   
“Haha very funny. Actually, I just decided on our first order of business. Can you please move all the mugs down to the empty bottom shelf so I can reach them?” I said rolling my eyes.   
“No problem.” He said as he set to work on the mugs, and I got the last bits of dinner in the oven. While dinner was cooking, I grabbed the few books that were downstairs and took him upstairs to my room so we could get started on some of the boxes I had up there. I had already built two bookshelves for my books but had yet to get to putting them away. Pointing to the six boxes of books in the corner, I told him that was our first project and that it would probably take us the longest. He looked at the boxes all labeled ‘books’ and tried not to laugh. “What?” I asked him, raising my eyebrow.   
“Nothing. Just imagining you getting all those books up here by yourself. One of those boxes is like half of your size” He replied before bursting into laughter. I glared at him but couldn’t keep myself from smiling.   
“Well it wasn’t easy, but the movers took pity on me and carried most of them up for me. Now, time to get to work. I don’t remember how I put them in the boxes, and I like them organized a certain way, so we could be at this for a while.” I walked over to the pile of boxes and put my hair up in a bun to keep it out of the way. Motioning for him to come over to me, I opened the first box and explained how I like them organized. He listened attentively. “Starting with the shelf on the left, I want them organized by series first, stand alone second, and the box marked special books last. All in alphabetical order according to author. Oh and before you think about putting them where I can’t reach, start in the middle of the bookcase.”   
“Maybe we should organize them on the floor first and then put them in the case after. To avoid any mistakes and things.” He suggested, opening a box and pulling out a few books. Forty-five minutes later, we had moved to sitting on my bed and had organized series from A-F and stand alone books from A-K. We heard the timer go off and decided to take a break for dinner. After dinner, we got back to work, talking and joking with each other and managed to get through 6 more letters in each category, as well as some of my decor pieces before we decided to call it a night and push the books out of the way. I walked him to the door and thanked him for coming over to help. “Any time Rebecca. Just let me know if you need any more help.” He grabbed his bag as I opened the door for him.   
“Okay, I will. I had a good time tonight. Get home safe.”   
“Will do. I had fun too. I’ll see you tomorrow at school little one.” He said, and then he surprised me. He pulled me in for a tight hug before leaving, waving to me from his jeep before driving away. I made sure he was out of view before closing the door. Climbing back upstairs with a smile on my face, I got ready for bed. Climbing into bed, I realized that I hadn’t even thought about Jake all evening, and also that my bed smelled like Montgomery. Curling up in a ball, I fell asleep surrounded in his scent.


End file.
